Liquid spray cap and the like



Aug. 5, 952 w. E. vENsEL LIQUID SPRAY CAP AND THE LIKE Filed July l, 1950 ne Y @Ww I Jf. Z

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Patented Aug. 5, 1952 UNITED STATESl PATENT OFFICE Liann) sraAY oar AND THE LIKE Y Wilbur E. Vensel, East Cleveland, Ohio y Application July 1, 1950, Serial No. 171,728

4 Claims. l

The present invention relates generally as indicated to liquid spray caps and more particularly to certain improvements in spray caps of the general type disclosed in my Patent No. 2,378,451, dated June 19, 1945, and in my co-pending application, Serial N o. 735,886, filed March 20, 1947, now abandoned, for dispensing in spray form low boiling point liquids which are contained in bottles or other containers to which said caps are adapted to be secured.

The spray cap assembly disclosed in the aforesaid patent includes a discharge orifice therethrough which is formed with an intermediate expansion chamber portion, an outer portion leading from one end of the expansion chamber portion to the exterior of the cap assembly and an inner portion leading into the other end of the chamber portion from within the bottle,. such inner portion being of smaller diameter than such outer portion. The provision of such a discharge orifice in the cap assembly has been found to be desirable in the effecting of fine spraying of the liquid from the bottle to which said cap assembly is secured.

The spray caps disclosed in the aforesaid pending application, among other things, include the further feature of misalignment of the inner and outer portions of the discharge orifice whereby to improve the spraying efficiency.

One object of the present invention is to provide in a spray cap assembly of the character indicated, a novel means for effecting misalgnment of the inner and outer portions of the discharge orifice. Y

Another object of this invention is to provide a spray cap assembly in which the surface of the expansion chamber portion through which the inner portion of the discharge orifice enters such chamber is so disposed as to induce a flow of the liquid therealong in the form of a thin sheet whereby more effective volatilization thereof is effected for creating a pressure in the expansion chamber to discharge the liquid and to more intimately mix with the liquid to produce a very iine spray.

Another object of this invention is to provide a spray cap assembly which can be assembled on a conventional threaded mouth glass bottle.

Another object of this invention is to provide a spray cap assembly which is designed to be permanently secured on a bottle of a simple form without a threaded mouth, such spray cap assembly rendering the bottle non-reusable as is desirable with certain liquids. l l. Another object of this invention is to provide a simple form of dispensing cap assembly adapted to shoot out the liquid in a jet or stream form.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, said invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawing setting forth in' detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principle. of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawings:

Figs. 1 to 4 are cross section views diametrically through a corresponding number of different: forms of dispensing cap assemblies as secured to bottles adapted to contain the liquids to be dism pensed through the discharge orifices formed in.

said cap assemblies, the orifice closure lever having been omitted in each of the cap assemblies; shown in Figs. 2 to Ll.

Referring now to the drawing, and first more specially to Fig. 1, the cap assembly comprises ay cap body I having an internally threaded skirt 21 in threaded engagement with the threaded mouth. of a bottle 3; a compressible or deformable packing ring 4 such as cork, for example, clamped be* tween the upper end surface 5 of the bottle andv the opposed surface 6 of said body, the latter pref erably being conical and being formed with a rib l adapted to be imbedded into the upper end of the ring Il to assure a 'fluid-tight seal; a length of capillary or thermometer tube 8 extending through said ring 4 and having an orifice 9 therethrough leading from the interior of the bottle to the conical expansion chamber lo formed in said body I; and a thumb or finger-operated lever I! pivotally connected to said body by the pin I2, said lever carrying a rubber-like plug I3 adapted to be seated over the outer end of the discharge orifice M which leads through the body from the apex of the chamber IU as by means of the torsion springv I5 which has its opposite ends bearing on the lever I I and engaged in an opening in the body.

As a precaution against the possibility of leakage of uid, gasket I6 is clamped between the lower end of skirt 2 and a collar I7 formed on the bottle 3.

'The orifice 9 is preferably smaller in diameter than the orifice I4 and because of the expansion chamber I0 between such orifices, the Fig. 1 cap assembly retains the desirable features of the above-referred-to patent construction.

In order to insure a more eiiicient spraying ac-` tion upon operation of the lever I I to unseat the plug I3 and upon positioning of the bottle in a horizontal or inverted position, the upper end of the tube 8 is cut on a bias as shown, whereby when the body I is screwed onto the bottle 3, the engagement of the upper end of the tube 8 with the conical wall of the expansion chamber I will cause the tube 8 to be tilted so that the central orifice 9 will be misaligned with respect to the orifice I4, this contributing to the improvement Vin the spraying action as outlined in the aforesaid pending application, due to the turbulence created in the chamber I0 by the liquid shooting from the orifice 9 against the conical wall of theexpansion chamber. Moreover, because of the bias cutting of the upper end of the tube 8, the liquid which issues from the orifice 9 will flow as a very thin sheet-like stream along the upper end surface of the tube and the conical wall of chamber as indicated by the arrows I 8 in Fig. 1, whereby to effect volatilization of a greater volume of liquid and to allow the volatilized liquid under pressure in the expansion chamber'l 0 to force the liquid through the discharge orice I4 and to intimately mix with such liquid to produce a very ne spray.

The spray cap assembly illustrated in Fig. 2 comprises a cap body 2I'I` of somewhat the same form as` that illustrated in Fig. l and having a skirt 2| threaded-over a conventional one-piece bottle 22.. and a unitary packing and orifice ring 23'clamped between the opposed surfaces 24 and 25.of.thevbottle and cap-body. 'Said bodyf2-is formed with a conical expansion chamber 26l and a discharge orice 2g1-leading frorrrthe apex of suchchamber to the exteriorv of said body.

In this case, the ring 23is .preferablymolded from a deformable rubber-likeplastic material such as. polyethylene which can be molded at very low pressure. wherebynot to cause, bending or breaking of the small diameter core pin which is necessary for the formation of 'the discharge orifice portion 28 which, as previously indicated. is smaller than the discharge orice 21. The molding of the ring 23 effects considerable `economies ascompared with the cost of the cork packingV ring 4 Awhichmust be ,speciecut cork to assureV eiiicient sealing thereby and the costv of the tubing,4` 8-v and cutting of the latter at an anglejas shown.

Said-ring23 has aconical extenson29 `fitting within .the chamber-25in said cap bottle` 20; The discharge orifice portion i-2Byis flared outwardly as shown whereby thepliquid passing; therethrough will flowas avery thin annular stream along: the flared wall andalongthe conical wall of chamber Z6 as indicated betweenarrows for; discharge4v in, the form of a very fine spray fromoriiice .2.1by, the Volatilized .liquid-,pressure in,V chamberfZB and within such stream.A By reasonoffthe design -gandfmaterialused for the ringv 23,v a conventional threaded mouth bottle may be used and no othersealing gasket need. be employed-,nor any'severe clamping pressureneed be. applied which vwould.excessively distortthe ring 23 and lthe .dischargeoricel therethrough.

As in theFig. l cap assembly, that illustrated in 2 lwill have. attached thereto the pivotal closure lever I I for closing theouter discharge orifice portion 21 when the device is not'in'ushe.

In Fig, 3 .isshown va spray cap assembly which is. substantially the .same as that illustrated in Fig. 2, and `,therefore. similar.reference-characters have `been usedlto designatehe. sam e ,ele4 ments Whsrebrf teeliminatetheneessitr-.of frepatingrie deiailsfthg dsserieiignsfthe @estruc- 4 tion and operation. As an added feature, the Fig. 3 cap assembly has a cap body 32 formed with a skirt 33 having a smooth inside wall. In addition, the combination packing ring and orice member 34 is formed with an integral skirt 36 adapted to have a snug fit over the cylindrical end portion of the bottle 31, said bottle being provided with a peripheral rib 38 therearound to bulge the skirt 36 thereat and to form a relatively high pressure sealing area at such rib 38. After the ring 34 has been slipped over the end of the bottle 31, a suitable plastic cement indicated at 39 may be applied at one or more points around the skirt 36 before forcing the cap body 32 into place. This cap assembly further simplifies the bottle construction and enables a predetermined rotative relation between the cap assembly and the bottle as is desirable in instances wherein the bottle is of non-circular cross section.

The cap assembly disclosed in Fig. 4 comprises a capbody 20, which is the same as that illustrated in Fig. 2, threadably secured on a bottle 22 also the same as that shown in Fig. 2. The only difference between the Fig. 4 and Fig. 2 cap assembly is that in the former the ring member 40..extends all the way up to the orice 21, the orifice 4I at ythe upper end of said ring being of smaller diameter than the oriiice 21 whereby .the liquid will issue from the bottle in a jet or stream form in the absence of the expansion chamber 26 between the discharge orice portions 4I and 21. As in the Figs. 2 and fconstructions, the vapor pressure of the liquid within the bottle will etl'ect sealed engagement Ybetween the conical extension of the ring with the conical wall of the expansionchamber in the cap body.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the features stated in any of the following claims-or the equivalent of such be employed.

I, therefore, particularlypoint out and distinctly claim as my invention:

l. A- cap assembly for dispensing a volatile liquid from a container to which said assembly is adapted tobe secured, said assembly being formed. with a discharge oriiice therethrough which includes an intermediateexpansion chamberportion and inlet and outlet orices through which `liquidfrom such container is adapted to enter and tobediScharged from such portionref spectively, the wall kof such portion encircling such inlet orice being substantially. vinclined withrespect to aplane normal to the longitudinal axisofthe. discharge orifice tocause liquidto lowalOIlg Such wall in a thinlyspread out -form to thereby facilitate volatilization of the. liquid inrsuch expansion chamber portion for building up pressure forthe discharge of liquidandgvolatlized liquid mixturefrom such portion through Suchsoutlet orice- 2.qThe capI assembly according to claimfkfurvther characterized'in that there-is a tubular-in-v Y sert in said cap assembly having a. boretherethroughfforming such inlet orifice through which theliquidventers the expansion chamberportion and having; an end cut-cna bias to `deiinesuch inclined wall.

3.; The gcapvassembly according to claim -2 -fur; thencharacterized, in; that the cap assembly comprisesa cap bodyhaving-a conical recess forming4 awall of such expansion chamber portion opposed to the wall dened by theinc1ined;.end ctfseisftubular. insert. suclrolitlet .orice .through 5 which the liquid is adapted to be discharged from such expansion chamber portion being contained in said cap body at the apex of such conical recess, and a resilient packing ring surrounding said tubular insert and adapted to be clamped 5 between said cap body and such container.

4. The cap assembly according to claim 3 further characterized in that said tubular member is adapted to be urged endWise into engagement with such conical recess into a position with such inlet orifice through said insert misaligned with respect to such outlet orice portion at the apex of such conical recess.

WLLBUR E. VENSEL.

6 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 90,215 Alexander May 18, 1869 1,742,605 Lemoine Jan. 7,1930 2,046,300 Bonner June 30, 1936 lo 2,313,930 Gebauer Mar. 16, 1943 2,378,451 Vensel June 19, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date l 693,135 France Aug. 18, 1930 

